My St. George Half Marathon

Annie Thomas asked me if I wanted to run in the St George Half Marathon on January 23. She decided to go on a cruise instead. I told Chandler Childs, my coworker and fellow technical writer, about the race and he signed up. There was a huge turnout but I didn't see Chandler at the race. He finished with a time of 2:07, way to go Chandler! My official time was 2:25:36.1

I brought my family to stay in Hurricane Friday night  with Mike Hallewell's family in Hurricane. Kelly wasn't feeling well so I ended up driving all the way (four hours). He was my wife's seminary teacher in high school. This was a nice opportunity for them to reconnect after 20 years. In the past, I've had trouble staying awake driving for more than an hour. Since I've been training 2 hours a day for the past 3 months, I've developed stamina and stayed awake, focused and alert the entire time.

I suited up for the race in thermals and parked at the Dixie Center. It was cold! It had rained the night before so everything was wet too. I was grateful that it wasn't  still raining. I mingled a little and met Luke. He ripped the bottom tag from his racing bib and asked me what it was for. I smiled and asked him if this was his first race? I told him that that tag was usually removed after crossing the finish line. However, in this race we were using a chip that we attached to one of our shoes so it wasn't needed. I asked Luke how long had he had trained and he said 9 weeks. He mentioned that he was going to participate in the St George Sprint Triathalon May 15. I plan to also attend that event and hope I can meet him again. We talked about running times and it sounded like we had a similar pace. We ran together for the first mile or so and then we got separated.  I didn't see him again after that. I hope his race went well.

My goal for the race was to run the entire race. I watched my heart rate as I ran and observed that I was in the higher zones most of the time. I was surprised because it didn't feel like I was working that hard. I should have taken Gatorade or water from every aid station. I believe I dehydrated. I ate a Gatorade Energy Shot and it tasted like brownie dough. It was really thick and hard to swallow. I wish I had brought my Hammer Gel with me and a water bottle instead. I think I saw mile marker 9 twice; I hope I didn't get turned around and repeat part of the course. It was kind of demoralizing. I felt disappointed. The crowd on the sidelines were quiet as I ran in. I saw Kelly and she called out to me and waved.

I was less sore this time and I could walk and drive home for another 4 hours. I'm looking forward to running a full marathon in Salt Lake on April 17. I need to build up my running endurance to 4 hours now. I need to practice using Hammer Endurolytes and Gel while  running long distances to make sure I don't run out of energy. I burned 2,392 calories (kcal) in this race.